STOCK MARKET, ven­er­a­ble in­sti­tu­tion dat­ing back to an­tiq­ui­ty. Orig­i­nal­ly, an­i­mals were led from the stock­yards to the mar­ket­place, where they were then sold for breed­ing or con­sump­tion.

There are dif­fer­ences and sim­i­lar­i­ties to the mod­ern day stock mar­ket. Cor­po­ra­tions are now gen­er­al­ly sold in­stead of live an­i­mals, which means that they can be di­vid­ed in­to con­ve­nient pieces be­fore­hand as the blood­shed is large­ly fig­u­ra­tive. The phe­nom­e­na of sud­den stam­pedes and em­bank­ment plunges, how­ev­er, are still very much alive in the mod­ern ver­sion.